


Maze Of Memories

by rainbowskissors



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Cathy Parr-centric, F/F, F/M, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Just going with the flow, Modern AU, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Platonic Relationships, Plot Twists, Reincarnation, Six the Musical References, Slow Burn, for now, i literally have no plot for this whatsoever lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:13:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25111438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowskissors/pseuds/rainbowskissors
Summary: All the Queens are reincarnated as high school students in a group of friends. They’re pretty sure they know each other as best friends should, but do they, really? They all have slightly fuzzy memories of their past lives as the former wives of Henry VIII, and when they feel comfortable enough to open up to each other, they find out a lot more than they ever thought they would...
Comments: 58
Kudos: 124





	1. I'm Sorry, What?

**Author's Note:**

> updates aren't very frequent, but i'll try my best. enjoy!!

Anne stood in front of her mirror, studying her reflection with a spark of satisfaction.

She surveyed her outfit - a pale green cropped shirt with a black plaid skirt that stopped just in the middle of her thighs, a darker green belt around her waist, black socks, and golden rings around her two double buns.

She’d styled her hair the way she usually wore it - two buns up, and the rest of her dark brown hair falling in a thick curtain around her shoulders and down her back. She knew she’d probably get dress-coded for her cropped shirt, but she couldn’t care less. Besides, it would give her extra time out of class to piss off the principal, and she’d gotten away with worse before.

She straightened the thick silver ‘B’ on her black choker - a gift from her parents - before turning away from the mirror and picking up her simple black backpack from the floor, where it lay by the post of her messy bed.

Whatever, she was going to be late for school if she didn’t hurry so there was no time to make her bed. She darted out of the door with a big grin spreading across her cherry-painted lips.

The ‘B’ on her necklace didn’t stand for anything in her name. It certainly didn’t stand for Anne, she just liked it, and it made a statement.

Anne was all about making bold statements in defiance to the world, much to the annoyance of her poor, tired parents. They were honestly starting to get tired of being called at work by the school to be told of yet another of Anne’s antics.

She swung around the banister and hopped down, skipping three steps and landing with a loud bang. From the kitchen, her mother groaned.

“Care to be a little lighter on your feet, Anne? The floor is going to break one of these days,” she said to her daughter as Anne quickly grabbed a blueberry waffle from the plate beside her mother and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Gotta go, mom! Bye!” she called, running out of the kitchen again and almost slipping on her socks. She dashed to the front door and skidded to a halt before throwing on her favourite black combat boots and grabbing her dark green coat, and ran out the door with a slam behind her.

Anne’s mother watched her go with a small smile on her face. “In highschool and she still acts like a kid,” she murmured under her breath, before turning back to finishing the waffles.

Meanwhile, Anne was running as fast as she could down the street, trying to reach the bus stop before her bus, which was gaining on her fast. Still, Anne managed to get ahead mere meters before the bus and skidded to a halt with a triumphant grin right beside her best friend and cousin, Katherine.

“Hey, Kat!” Anne exclaimed, slightly winded as they boarded the bus. Kat giggled sweetly - she was often babied by her friend group because she was the youngest, but she didn’t care. It felt nice, since her parents were so busy they barely had time for her anyways.

“Hi, Anne. Nice entrance, by the way,” Kat remarked with a grin as Anne rolled her eyes and smacked her arm. “I woke up late,” she said before taking a bite of her blueberry waffle.

Kat’s eyes rounded at the sight of the waffle, before giving a begging stare to her cousin. “Pweeease?” she asked in the babiest voice she could muster, while still being quiet.

After all, it was only the second week of high school, and she figured she still had to make good impressions on everyone. Something Anne couldn’t care less about, seeing as the principal had called her parents at least 8 times in the past week.

“Fine,” Anne mock-grumbled, tearing off a large piece and handing it to her cousin, who quickly scarfed it down. Anne looked at her.

“Geez, did you not eat anything this morning?” she asked, to which Kat swallowed, laughed and replied with: “No, I was up late reading, and then I was on the phone with Catherine this morning.”

She immediately regretted mentioning Catherine’s name. Her and Anne didn’t get along very well, seeing as Anne was a huge prankster and loved to push Catherine’s buttons. Catherine was vastly more mature than Anne, which (of course) didn’t bother Anne in the least, so their personalities... clashed, to say the least.

Still, Kat knew they both considered each other good friends despite their complaints about each other. She glanced over at Anne, who had surprisingly not said anything about Catherine yet, just finished off the last of her waffle and had licked her fingers clean. Then the two got onto the bus and chose an empty seat near the back of the bus, where they wouldn't be bothered by the seniors.

"Did you finish the history homework?" Anne asked her after a bit. Still a little uncomfortable, Kat nodded, turning to open her backpack and pull out her notebook, then flipped to the page she'd pored over for several hours last night.

"Wow, you doodle a lot," Anne remarked, pointing to a drawing of a flying unicorn on the corner of Kat's page. Her cousin blushed and covered it with her hands. "It's nothing," Kat mumbled.

"No, really, it's a hell of a lot better than I could do," Anne told her, smiling. Kat grinned back. "Really?"

"Yup," Anne said. Despite her jokester personality and her reckless attitude, she cared deeply for her cousin ever since she found out that Kat's parents were so busy and stressed for work that Kat sometimes went weeks without seeing them. So she found joy in encouraging her cousin like a surrogate mother, in some way.

"Anyways. Can I tell you something?" Kat said, closing her notebook and putting it back in her bag. As Anne nodded, Kat shifted so she as sitting on her hands, and bit her lip. Anne could tell she was a little hesitant to tell her, so she took her arm, pulled it and clasped her hand in hers.

"Don't worry. It's probably a lot less weird than my dreams," she assured her, squeezing her hand comfortingly and earning another giggle from Kat. Then she tilted her head, and her pink tipped ponytail swung to the side, narrowly missing Anne's head.

"What do you dream about, anyways?" Kat asked her cousin. Anne smirked. "Oh, green waffles that chase me around Paris threatening to kill me with a baguette sword, the usual," she said nonchalantly. Kat burst into laughter, earning annoyed glares from the seniors behind them.

"Seriously?" she gasped in between laughing. Anne gave her a serious stare. "Of course, do you think I'm lying?" she deadpanned. Kat rolled her eyes playfully.

"But seriously, what's wrong?" Anne said, and Kat's smile faded. "I've... been having weird, like, flashback thingies. I keep seeing the same castle, and this fat king sitting on a throne and bossing this girl around," she blurted, absentmindedly twirling her pink hair around her finger.

Anne furrowed her brow. For some strange reason, it sounded strangely familiar.

"Okay, that's definitely weird. Could you describe the king again?" she said. Kat couldn't recognize the edge that had crept into her cousin's voice, but she shook it off and complied.

"He's dressed in, like, 1700's fashion style. He has this black spotted white coat - which looks like you'd sweat to death in it - and an orange beard."

Now Anne was definitely a bit concerned. That was the exact king she'd seen occasionally creeping into her day dreams during french class, when she would have strange visions. He fit Kat's description exactly.

"Anne. Anne, you okay?"

Kat's voice shook Anne out of her stupor, and she glanced over at her in a bit of a daze. "What? Oh, yeah, what is it?"

Kat pointed out the window of the bus at a building the bus had pulled up outside of. "We're at school, and also, you zoned out for a bit," she told her. Anne could tell her cousin was a bit worried about her - Anne wasn't one to space out in the middle of a conversation.

"Sorry. It's just, I... I feel like I've seen that king, too," Anne said, taking a deep breath. Kat's face morphed into one of shock.

"But... I've never told you about him before! How can that be?"

"Hey, move it, skanks."

The loud, rude voice from behind them belonged to none other than Harry, the school's jock star and the biggest pain in the ass to Anne, Kat, and their friend group ever. Kat rolled her eyes and faced him, opening her mouth to retort.

"Move along," Harry repeated, cutting her off and curling his lip threateningly. "You're holding up the line!"

He stepped forwards and towered over the girls, rolling up his sleeve suggestively.

Anne realized he was right, so she tugged on Kat's wrist and they left the bus before Kat could say something.

"Hey! I was going to punch his ass," Kat complained. Anne didn't respond, she just continued to drag her until they reached the far corner of the school across the playground. Only stoners ever came to the corner to smoke their cheap pot, so the corner permanently stank of weed. But it was a decent hideout, and the friend group often hung out together there to hide from teachers and annoying kids.

"Okay, first of all," Anne began, letting go of Kat's wrist and turning to face her. Kat began rubbing her wrist, where Anne had dragged her, where it was red. "No swearing," she said, pointing a finger at Kat. She rolled her eyes.

"Anne, we're in high school. If you don't swear by now, you're a pu-- a baby," Kat said. She bit her tongue to stop herself from saying 'pussy', knowing it would only annoy Anne. She knew it was a bit hard for Anne and the other 'mothers' of the group to see Kat 'grow up' (they're the same age! Not fair), so she refrained from swearing too much.

For some reason, Anne, Catherine, and Jane had varying motherly tendencies. Jane loved to care for her and help her little by little, and Catherine the same, except Jane was gentler. And Anne... Anne defended her with the ferocity of a mother lion. It was a bit strange, but Kat loved them nonetheless.

"Sure, whatever. We have other things to discuss," Anne continued, and she began biting on her nails. It was a nervous habit for her, so Kat knew something was wrong. "How the hell did we both have strange dreams of this weird king with terrible fashion sense?"

"Dreams?!"

Despite the seriousness of the conversation, Kat couldn't help but snicker. What a word choice, coming from Anne.

"Visions, fantasies, whatever you want to call them! The thing is--"

"That is NOT any better," Kat snorted. Anne slapped her lightly.

"ANYWAYS!" Anne said, glaring at Kat. "This is really strange."

Kat's snickers died down. She'd rarely ever see Anne so worked up about anything, however weird and coincidental this was.

"What's strange?" a familiar voice sounded from around the corner. Anne and Kat turned their heads to see Cathy round the corner.

"Just something weird we both thought of," Kat said dismissively. She didn't care about it too much, to be honest. It was just some weird coincidence, like those stories where some guy shares the same name with another guy and they both die the same way, etc.

“Well, okay,” Cathy said, shrugging. She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. “Did I tell you about my dream I had last week?”

“No, what was it about?” Anne said, half-wanting to forget what she’d wanted to discuss with her cousin. It rubbed her the wrong way, and gave her a twisted feeling in her gut.

“Okay, so there was this ugly-ass king, right? And he’s wearing this ugly-ass coat,” Cathy started. Anne paled as Cathy went on.

“And he had this bright orange beard. Did I mention he was... on the large side?” Cathy said with a smirk, but it quickly dissolved when she saw the looks on her friend’s faces.

“Uh, did that offend you? I’m sorry!” Cathy began apologizing quickly. “It’s just, I’ve been up all night last night, and I was sitting in front of my computer,” Cathy rambled. She ran her hand through her puffy curly hair, but frowned when her friends didn’t answer.

“This is extremely awkward,” Cathy said after a long silence. Kat was frowning, looking deep in thought, and Anne was studying her black combat boots.

“Cathy, Kat and I have to talk to you,” Anne said. Her normally vibrant green eyes were clouded with something unrecognizable, and Cathy began to worry. What the hell was happening, why were Anne and Kat acting so weird?

“Do you... happen to know what psychic powers are?” Anne asked, chewing on her nails. Cathy stared at her, trying to determine if she was joking or not. But Anne was dead serious.

“Depends what you mean,” Cathy began with uncertainty.

“Like, you share thoughts with other people even though you didn’t say anything?” Kat jumped in, raising a finger.

“That’s called telepathy. But what does that have to do with my dream?” Cathy asked, more confused than ever. Her friends had never been interested in anything remotely related to the brain, much less psychology and the sorts.

So what was up right now?

Anne took a deep breath. “Umm, we might have telepathy?” she said slowly, gesturing from her to Kat.

“What?!”


	2. Sleepover Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne, Kat and Cathy try to forget their worries at Anna's sleepover.

"Wait, wait, wait. So you've never told anyone about this king guy, yet you've both seen the exact same thing?"

"Yes, Cathy. We've told you over and over," Kat told her tiredly. "And it seems you've seen this dude too."

Cathy, Anne and Kat had excused themselves from the rest of the group to go discuss what was happening in the weed corner.

Cathy had been interrogating them for the past hour, and Kat's stomach was grumbling. She hadn't had a chance to bite into her sandwich yet.

"But that's against all known laws of the brain," Cathy explained, biting her lip. "It's impossible to be able to read someone's mind, much less three people."

Kat knew better than to question her. Cathy was the ultimate nerd bookworm - she barely slept at all, and her body practically ran on caffeine.

"We've told you our side multiple times. Can we eat now?" Anne butted in. Cathy shrugged. "Sure, I never stopped you."

"Yes you did! You kept making us repeat the story--"

Kat was cut off by the bell.

"Are you actually kidding me?" Anne grumbled, wrapping up the sandwich she'd just taken out of her backpack. 

"Well, I'm going to go now," Cathy said, then waved to them and left to go to her class. Cathy was super punctual, and her friends sometimes called her a suck-up. It didn't bother her that much.

"Guess we'll have to snack in class," Kat said, glancing at Anne.

Kat was known to be grumpy if she was on an empty stomach. And I mean, _really_ grumpy. Once she'd thrown a chair at the whiteboard because she'd skipped lunch. Ever since then, the teachers had permitted her to eat in class as long as she wasn't distracting anyone.

"Correction: you," Anne said, still peeved. Anne, on the other hand, wasn't allowed to ever since she'd 'unknowingly' led a trail of rats into the school with breadcrumbs.

It didn't really help that Anne was even grumpier than Kat when she didn't eat.

The two packed up their untouched food and proceeded to re-enter the building, where they were met by Jane.

"Hey, guys!" she greeted them. 

"Hey," Kat said with a smile. Anne was _still_ upset over her food. "Where's Catherine and Anna?"

"Oh, they had English," Jane told them with a dismissive wave. Her eye caught Anne's sour expression, and she turned to her.

"Is she okay?" Jane asked, gesturing to Anne who was muttering under her breath. Probably cursing Cathy with foul words.

"Oh, yeah, she's just upset that she didn't get to eat," Kat explained. "C'mon, we don't want to be late."

The three jogged up the stairs, and entered through the door mere seconds before the strict professor entered and began the lesson.

Kat took her normal seat beside the window on the left of the classroom, and Anne slid into the seat right beside her. Jane took the desk behind them, and they began to take notes.

At least, Jane and Anne were. Kat was distracted. Before, she hadn't cared much about the coincidence. But now that Cathy had told them just how unusual it was, she was beginning to get worried. 

Was there something wrong with her and Anne's brain? And Cathy's, she might as well add. How the hell had they all seen the exact same fat king with the exact same features?

As well as question them relentlessly about the story, Cathy had also bombarded them with questions about the appearance and the setting of the 'visions', as the three had decided to call them.

She'd asked them things like: "Did he have a slight wrinkle above his left eyebrow?" To which Kat and Anne would think about for a moment, then answer "Yes".

The more Kat thought about it, the more the worry nagged at her.

"Katherine, are you paying attention?"

The stern voice of the professor cut into Kat's thoughts, and she turned hurriedly to the board. The teacher had scribbled all sorts of strange diagrams on the board, none of which Kat understood. She barely understood anything in science, really.

"Yes," Kat lied, hoping the teacher wouldn't question her. She let out a quiet sigh of relief when he only raised an eyebrow but didn't press the matter further. Kat crossed her arms on her desk and sunk into them, resting her head.

She remained like that, thinking, until she felt a pencil prod her in the back. Turning around, she saw Jane leaning forwards, pencil in hand. Kat shot a quick glance at the teacher, whose back was turned.

"Yes?" Kat whispered. Jane also glanced at the teacher, before whispering a question to Kat.

"Why didn't Anne get to eat?" 

Kat looked at her cousin, who was busy scribbling in her notebook. Well, more like ripping holes in it with the tip of her ballpoint pen and muttering under her breath.

"Cathy was questioning us about... stuff, and she didn't give us a chance to eat," she explained, leaving out what Cathy was questioning them about. She wasn't sure if she wanted anyone else to get involved.

"What was she asking about?" Jane whispered back with wide eyes.

"Oh, uh, just this strange dream we both had--"

"Katherine!"

This time, the professor's voice sounded angrier. Kat looked up at him, and faltered when she saw the glare he was giving her.

"I'm going to ask you one more time to pay attention. The next time I catch you slacking off, I'm going to have to call your parents," he warned her.

_Ha._

Unbeknownst to him, Kat's parents didn't give two shits about their kid in school. Kat and Anne had often laughed before at how little their parents disciplined them, blaming it on their rambunctious behaviour.

(Their parents _did_ love them with all their hearts, don't get them wrong. They're just super tired with having to deal with their kid's shit so much. Kinda like mine lmao)

"Sorry," Kat apologized, trying to hide a snicker under her hand as she thought back to her and Anne's talk about their parents. Luckily the teacher turned back to the board right as her face stretched into a large grin.

"Why are you smiling?"

Anne had turned her head and was now staring, confused, at her cousin who was grinning like an idiot in the middle of science class.

"Oh, nothing," Kat murmured, pushing her smile away.

"Hmm," Anne hummed, returning to her notebook.

The rest of the lesson was boring, as always. Kat had always had difficulty paying attention to anything, so instead of trying to pay attention to the tiresome class, she took apart her pen and put it back together again, over and over until the class ended.

"Kat, were you even paying attention to the lesson?" Anne asked her as they left the class. Jane had gone to the bathroom and had asked Kat and Anne to tell their teacher where she'd gone.

"Yeah, yeah. Boring molecules and atoms and shit," Kat answered dismissively with a wave of her hand. Anne rolled her eyes.

"I swear, your ADHD will be the death of me when I need to copy your notes," she shot back sarcastically.

Of course, Kat didn't actually have ADHD. It was just something her friends 'joked' about since she showed many of the symptoms. 

"Whatever," Kat muttered as Anne laughed.

-

"Jesus, finally!" Anne groaned as the final bell at the end of the day rang.

Her and Kat stumbled out of the school, thankful that Friday was _finally_ over. They walked over to the front of the school, where a line of trees was planted. They neared the third tree from the school, where Cathy, Jane, Catherine and Anna were waiting for them.

"You guys got out late," Cathy remarked as Anne and Kat arrived. Anne rolled her eyes. "Not everyone is ready like that," Anne retorted with a snap of her finger. 

"Guys, chill out," Jane said, pushing them apart with her hands. 

"We're all meeting up at my house, right?" Anna butted in. The other girls chimed in with agreement, and Anna stepped back with satisfaction.

"Oh, my mom's here. I'll see you tonight!" Jane called as she ran up to a black car that had pulled up to the curb to pick up Jane.

After saying bye to Jane, the other girls turned to each other.

"So..." Cathy said, patting her poofy hair absentmindedly.

Anne played with the 'B' on her choker but remained silent.

Anna was the one who broke the silence when she cracked her knuckles.

"Ahh!" Kat exclaimed, her hands flying to her ears. The other four turned to her with worried expressions. 

"What is it?" Catherine asked.

"Oh, it's just... the sound of knuckles cracking is..." Kat didn't finish, instead shuddered. Anna chuckled. 

"If it bothers ya that much, I'll stop."

After that, the conversation died down. The girls didn't really know how to fill in the space with talk; none of them were exactly good at filling in silence. Besides Anne, but she obviously had things on her mind.

Kat bit her lip, wondering how to continue the conversation, when a yellow bus caught her eye. 

"Sorry guys, but Anne and I have to go now," she said, shoving Anne a little bit. Anne seemed to wake from a stupor, not unlike the one earlier in the morning on the bus, and she nodded, looking a bit distracted.

"Bye, guys," she called over her shoulder, and she and Kat boarded the bus and took their seats at the back of the bus.

-

"Cathy's here!"

Kat giggled as Anne shoved her playfully, causing her to collapse on a pile of pillows. Catherine shot them a mock-annoyed glare from where she sat on the couch, as Jane got up from beside her to open the door for Cathy.

"Hi, guys!" Cathy called from the front door. Catherine, Anne and Kat turned to her to greet her, before the cousins resumed their shoving match and Catherine watched the spectacle from above.

"Hi, Cathy. I'm in the kitchen grabbing food," came Anna's voice from the kitchen.

It was 7:35pm, and Cathy had just arrived at Anna's house for the sleepover. Kat and Anne had carpooled together with Anne's mom, arriving at Anna's house 10 minutes ago. Then Catherine had come a few minutes after with Jane, who she'd encountered on the walk to Anna's house (she lived a few streets away). 

"I see you guys are settled in nicely," Cathy commented with a lighthearted chuckle as she dropped her bag by the door on the pile. Anna waltzed into the living room with two bowls of chips and set them down on the table.

"Yup, we're going to watch a movie now," Catherine told her excitedly, sitting up on the couch. Anne and Kat briefly stopped their shoving match to wave to Cathy, before continuing it yet again.

"Nice," Cathy said as she settled down on the couch beside Jane. "Which movie?" 

"I was thinking of _The Notebook_ ," Jane said dreamily. Catherine rolled her eyes. "You're such a hopeless romantic," she teased. 

"Am not!" she retorted, sticking out her tongue.

"Hey, calm down, guys! You two, Anne and Kat," Anna added, sweeping the room with her eyes. The girls finally settled down, and Anna opened Netflix to watch _The Notebook_ , much to Catherine's dismay.

Anne and Kat were still shoving each other, and were now fighting over chips as well. After a while, Cathy lightly kicked Anne in the back, and when she looked up at her in half-shock, Cathy mimed the 'zip it' motion while holding down a smirk. Anne rolled her eyes but obeyed.

-

"What a romantic ending," Anne sighed dramatically, clasping her hands together and leaning back against the couch on Jane's legs, who looked down at her in shock. The ending credits of the movie were rolling on the screen now, and Anna muted the volume.

"They literally died!" she replied, to which Kat snickered. 

"It was sad," Jane said, pouting. Catherine rolled her eyes and wrapped her arm around Jane. "Not every love story has a happy ending," she told her.

"Yeah, like _Romeo and Juliet_ ," Cathy interjected, raising a finger. Anna looked at her in surprise. "You watch romantic movies?" she asked, clearly surprised.

Cathy looked offended. "Being a bookworm is _not_ my only defining characteristic," she retorted, crossing her arms. All the girls burst into laughter, and Cathy scoffed.

"Go ahead, laugh at the nerd," she said, which only caused the girls to laugh harder.

The laughter died down after a bit. Kat wiped her eye and suggested that they start making their beds on the floor.

The girls agreed, and took out their numerous blankets, pillows, and whatnot to make little beds on the floor.

"It's only midnight," Anna said, but right after she yawned. 

"Yeah, and you seem tired," Catherine told her, patting her shoulder. "Let's go to bed."

"Okay, mom," Anne said with a wicked grin. Kat giggled, and Jane couldn't help but snicker a little.

"You guys are unbearable sometimes," Catherine sighed, before lying down in her bed.

"Night, y'all," Cathy called from her spot. The others chorused 'good nights' before falling into a silence as each one gradually fell into the oblivion of sleep.


	3. Night Terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cathy thinks she has a theory on the shared thoughts between her, Anne, and Kat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i decided to post chapter 3 alongside chapter 2 because i finished writing chapter 3 before chapter 2.

Cathy was awoken to the sound of screaming.

It was a bloodcurdling, horrifying sound.

She shot up straight in her makeshift bed on Anna’s living room floor, twisting to see where the scream had come from. Her eyes caught a faint green glow - an alarm clock.

4:56am. She’d been asleep for almost an hour.

Cathy squinted in the dark, trying to make out shapes. She recognized Jane on the couch, and Anna on the other one across from her. At Cathy’s feet was Catherine, and on the other side of the room, Anne was sprawled out on numerous blankets, snoring away.

That left one girl. Kat.

“Kat?” Cathy called out softly. “Are you there?”

She sensed movement from the darkest corner of the room, where Kat had made her little burrow. For some reason, the girl had brought a whole swathe of blankets to make a nest with. She’d been the first to fall asleep, snuggled up in her mass of wool.

Cathy didn’t get an answer, only a whimper so quiet Cathy wasn’t sure she’d even heard it. Still, she got up from the floor and crossed over to where Kat was lying down.

“You okay?” Cathy murmured, leaning over Kat. She could just make out Kat’s wide, terrified eyes, and she almost recoiled in shock.

She’d never seen anything like that look on anyone’s face before, much less the sweet Kat.

“Hey. Hey, it’s okay,” Cathy said when Kat began sobbing quietly. Cathy reached out to place her hand on Kat’s shoulder, but she recoiled in an instant and began sobbing a bit louder.

Cathy was a bit worried. This had never happened before, in all the sleepovers the friends had shared together. She, for the life of her, had no idea what was wrong with Kat.

“Don’t touch me!” Kat cried, bringing up a corner of a blanket to hide her face from Cathy, who frowned. Had she done something wrong?

“It’s me, it’s Cathy,” she whispered, trying to calm Kat down. She hesitantly tried to place her hand back on Kat’s shoulder, and Kat was too busy hiding her face that she didn’t notice Cathy’s hand.

“What’s wrong, Kitty?” Cathy asked, calling her by her pet name. There was a bit of a silence, before Kat let out a shuddering breath.

“S-sorry,” she whimpered, then sniffed.

“Don’t apologize. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

“I had a nightmare,” Kat gasped. Cathy noticed Kat’s hands let go of the blanket and creep to her neck, wrapping around it like a chokehold. A strange reaction, and one that seemed to have been made unconsciously.

“Do you... want to talk about it?” Cathy offered. She wasn’t very good at comforting people, since she wasn’t really a people person. That is, unless she’d been hyped up on caffeine or sugar, then she was extremely extroverted.

But at this ungodly hour in the morning, the effects of her last coffee had subdued.

“You don’t have to,” Cathy said when Kat didn’t reply, instead squeezed her eyes tight and brought her knees closer in.

There was another long silence that seemed deafening in Cathy’s ears.

“It was the king,” Kat started, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes again. Cathy rubbed her hand on Kat’s shoulder, which seemed to calm her down a bit. Then she went on.

“He... he gave me a block. I don’t know what I was supposed to do with it, but, you know, something told me I was supposed to lay my head on it. So I did. And then...”

Kat broke off with a shuddering gasp, and turned her head away from Cathy, her pink-tipped hair creating a curtain between her and Cathy, hiding her face.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” Cathy whispered, comforting the smaller girl. Kat peered through her hair and cast Cathy a grateful (albeit watery) smile, then continued with obvious difficulty.

“And then this guy with an axe came out of nowhere, and he raised it above his... his head, then he let it drop, and it sliced through my neck, and, oh Cathy it hurt so much...” Kat seemed to run out of breath on the last word, then she buried her head in her face.

Cathy was in shock. How had this sick scene crept into Kat’s mind, of all people? She was the sweetest, most innocent girl Cathy knew. She wasn’t one to indulge in... medieval-style execution methods.

“Shh, honey, it’s okay,” Cathy said.

And that’s when the thought struck. The king, in Cathy’s weird flashback vision thingies, had often talked about the beheading of... someone. Anne-something. Cathy hadn’t thought much of it, until Anne had told her about her and Kat’s supposed telepathy. Cathy had worried about it for hours on end, reading and researching for something to prove her right with. But there was nothing, and Anne, Kat, and her case was extremely strange.

Cathy had momentarily forgotten about her discovery in the midst of the fun she’d been having during the sleepover, but now that Kat was talking about the king giving her a block, as if he knew that she would be executed... everything came flooding back.

Cathy had been surfing the internet on her phone while everyone had been sleeping. It had been around 1:50am, when she’d stumbled upon the Wikipedia article on King Henry the VIII. He matched the description Kat and Anne had given exactly, and he’d been known for having six wives, two of whom had been beheaded. Like in Kat’s dream.

At the time, Cathy hadn’t thought much of it. But now that she was wide awake after Kat’s episode, everything came crashing down, hard, in Cathy’s mind.

And now that Cathy thought of it, those two wives were named Anne and Katherine. And they’d been cousins.

Just like the Anne who was snoring away by the door, and the Kat that was sobbing into her knees.

Or had previously been sobbing.

“Cathy, are you alright?”

Kat’s voice broke into the bubble of Cathy’s realization. The shock had come so quickly that Cathy had almost fallen back unsteadily. Kat had grabbed her arm to help steady her.

Cathy looked at Kat, who had red, puffy eyes, but now looked a bit better than before.

Kat smiled at her, and the almost dried streaks of tears on her face reflected the faint light that was now beginning to seep through the window.

“I...” Cathy was at a loss for words. It couldn’t be. It was just a coincidence. Just a coincidence, she kept telling herself.

“What’s a coincidence?” Kat asked, and Cathy realized she’d mumbled the phrase aloud.

“Kat, you’re not going to believe me,” Cathy began slowly, praying she wouldn’t sound stupid if she tried explaining what had come to her at 2:00 in the morning.

“What is it?” Kat asked with rounded eyes that now gleamed with worry.

“Just... wake Anne, and meet me in the kitchen. Try not to wake anyone else up,” Cathy whispered to her, lowering her voice when she saw Catherine stirring a little at her feet at the sound of their voices.  
-

“Your caffeine addiction is unbelievable,” Anne grumbled, rubbing her eyes. She was still a little (very) tired, and the bags under her eyes were clearly visible.

“Hey, you’d better thank my addiction, it’s how I got you the damn answers in the first place,” Cathy shot back at her.

She’d just finished explaining her theory and the strange similarities between Kat and Anne’s story, and Henry VIII’s story. Anne was grumpy that she’d been awoken only to listen to a conspiracy theory.

“Yeah, Anne, she has a point,” Kat pointed out. She then let out a huge yawn. Having traumatic nightmares had probably had an effect on Kat’s energy, after all.

“But how does that explain our fucking situation?” Anne snapped, frowning.

“Hey! Watch your tongue,” Cathy retorted. Anne didn’t answer, instead she crossed her arms and looked away. Kat let out a sigh of defeat.

“Anne, chill. I’m sorry you’re grumpy due to loss of sleep,” she said, addressing her cousin. Then she turned to Cathy. “And thank you for the information.”

“Okay, sorry I snapped at you, Cathy,” Anne apologized, rubbing her eyes again. Cathy rolled her eyes. “I guess I forgive you,” she muttered.

“Good,” Kat said happily, clasping her hands together.

“But seriously, how does that explain what we’ve gotten into?” Anne asked.

Cathy took a deep breath and pressed her fingers to her temples, wondering how to begin the discussion with the cousins.

“Do you... happen to believe in reincarnation?” Cathy proposed. Anne deadpanned her, and Kat raised her eyebrows.

“What’s that got to do with this?” Kat questioned. Cathy bit a fingernail.

“Well, what if I suggested my theory that we are reincarnated from Henry VIII’s six wives? I mean, think of it. There are six of us in our friend group, and we all just happen to share a name with each wife,” Cathy began, accenting the ‘happen’. Anne and Kat still remained quiet, so Cathy went on.

“I was reading about it last night. The first wife was Catherine of Aragon, which could be any of us three,” Cathy stated, pointing to herself then to Kat. Then, she pointed back into the living room where Catherine, Anna, and Jane were still sleeping.

“The second wife was Anne Boleyn. Either you or Anna,” Cathy continued, pointing to Anne. Finally, she spoke up.

“But her name was Anne, not Anna. So how can it be Anna?” Anne questioned, prodding her disfigured space bun. One of them had completely fallen out, leaving her with half a bun on one side and a pigtail on the other.

“Just hold on. The third wife was Jane Seymour. Jane. The fourth wife was Anne of Cleves, but people also called her Anna. It’s debated. She was German, so perhaps it’s different than how it was in England,” Cathy told her. Anne shrugged and let her go on.

“The fifth was Katherine Howard. She was the youngest, and was beheaded at 19.” Cathy shared a bit of trivia knowledge with them, but regretted it when she saw Kat tense up. Anne wouldn’t know about the panic attack she’d experienced before, but Cathy knew that Katherine Howard’s story was terrifying to Kat.

Cathy placed a hand on Kat’s shoulder, and when Kat met her eyes with her own fearful ones, Cathy silently told her that everything would be alright, which seemed to calm her down.

Anne watched the exchange in confusion. “What did I miss?” she asked, when Kat returned her gaze to her. Kat bit her lip but didn’t say anything, and Cathy leaned forwards to speak softly to Anne.

“She had a nightmare about being beheaded. I imagine it hits close to home,” Cathy informed her, and Anne nodded her head slowly in understanding. “Oh shit,” she responded. “At least my queen wasn’t beheaded,” she said with a small grin of relief.

“Uh, actually, about that. Anne Boleyn was beheaded after being accused by Henry of adultery and incest.”

The look Anne gave her was almost comical. Her eyes screamed, “What the fuck?!”

“Moving on,” Cathy declared. “The sixth, and final wife, was Catherine Parr. She outlived Henry.” Cathy concluded her mini-history lesson.

“Lucky chick,” Anne clucked her tongue, then turned to her cousin.

“You alright?” she asked in a softer tone. Although Cathy had comforted her before, there was still a trace of fear visible in Kat’s eyes.  
“Yeah,” she assured her with a smile which Anne returned.

There was an extremely drawn out moment in which the only sound was the faint snoring of Anna from the other room, as the three girls who were awake pondered the new theory.

“So, you’re saying we’re reincarnated queens?” Kat said, raising an eyebrow and leaning against the counter. Cathy shrugged. “It’s my only possible explanation for this whole shitty mess we got into,” she replied.

“Jesus,” Anne exclaimed. Her brow was furrowed, and she was staring at the fridge behind Kat. “This is unbelievable.”

“Should we tell the other girls?” Kat asked, playing with her hair.

“I can only imagine their reactions if we waltzed into the room declaring that we’re reincarnations of 500 year old queens,” Anne joked dryly. Cathy chuckled at that.

“They do have a right to know, though,” Cathy said seriously. Anne raised an eyebrow.

“Know what, though? Our conspiracy theory?” Anne said. “We don’t even know what we’re discussing here.”

“That’s true, but still. They have a right to know what’s on our minds. Don’t we tell them everything?” Cathy said.

“I’m not arguing, I’m just saying. They’ll probably think we’re mentally insane,” Anne replied, throwing up her hands.

“For all we know, we shouldn’t even be alive,” Kat murmured. She tugged a pink lock out of her head and wrapped it around her finger until the circulation was almost cut off.

“Awh, Kat, don’t talk like that,” Anne told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Every human has a purpose, so there must be some reason we’re reincarnations.”

“That was so philosophical,” Cathy teased, to which Anne just stuck out her tongue at her.

“This escalated so quickly from about an hour ago,” Kat sighed, crossing her arms. Cathy hummed in agreement.

“Well, seeing as it’s already 5:30 in the morning, I’m heading back to bed,” Anne declared, before turning on her heel and strutting back into the room. With a glance at the clock on the microwave that confirmed it was now 5:31am, Cathy led Kat back to bed.

As Cathy got comfortable in her blankets, trying to keep her head from throbbing after what she’d just discussed, she heard Anne call her name.

“Yeah?” she answered, propping her head up on her elbow.

“I just wanted to thank your caffeine addiction, since it brought us clarity,” Anne thanked her sarcastically. Then the demeanor dropped.  
“Seriously, thanks. It brought me peace of mind,” she said with a thankful smile. Cathy rolled her eyes and grinned.

“No problem, loser,” she shot back playfully. Anne mock-gasped.

“You’re the loser,” she grumbled, and buried herself back in her covers before Cathy could argue.

With a sigh, Cathy herself got comfortable and drifted off to bed, exhausted from her early morning.


	4. Eggs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (the chapter title is the first thing that came to mind, sue me)  
> Anne, Kat and Cathy finally come clean to the others.

“Wake up, lazy asses!”

Of course. There was only one way that Anna had decided would be good enough to wake up the girls, which was cussing at the top of her lungs.

Anne grumbled into her pillow, and turned away from where the light was streaming in. Coincidentally, it was also where Anna’s LOUD shouting voice was coming from - the kitchen.

“I said, get up!” Anna sang, bursting into the living room. Anne still refused to move her head, but she shifted a little bit so she could breathe a little easier. It wasn’t exactly easy to circulate air with fluff going up your nose.

This was a movement that didn’t go unnoticed by Anna.

“Anne!” Anna crowed, nearing her. Anne inwardly groaned as Anna approached her and banged a spoon against a pot in Anne’s ear.

“Jesus fuck, okay!” Anne snarled, pushing up and sitting up on her blankets. As Anna retreated back into the kitchen, laughing, Anne surveyed everyone else, who were in the various stages of waking up.

Jane was (obviously) fully awake, and had already folded her blankets neatly in a pile in the corner of the room. She was now helping Catherine fold her own blankets. 

Kat was in the process of waking up. She would open her eyes, look around, let out a huge yawn, then nod off and repeat that again a few minutes away. Anne snickered at the amusing sight.

Lastly, Cathy was still sound asleep. She was the deepest sleeper out of the friend group, and was snoring away. Half of her face was smushed into her pillow, and her mouth was half-open, curled up in her mass of blankets.

Anne sighed and got up, wincing at her joints cracking. This didn’t go unnoticed by Jane, who glanced at her while still folding one of Catherine’s blankets.. “Are you okay?” she asked, looking concerned.

“Yeah, I just had an... early morning,” Anne muttered, yawning. The sentence barely registered in her mind until she saw Jane’s expression. “Morning?” she echoed.

The events of earlier crashed into Anne’s mind so forcefully she unconsciously pressed two fingers to her temple and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Anne, are you okay?” Jane repeated, placing the blanket on the floor and placing her hand on Anne’s arm comfortingly.

Anne opened her eyes and tried to give Jane a reassuring smile, but the same word kept bouncing around in her skull, giving her a migraine.

Reincarnated.

She was reincarnated from some chick who’d lived hundreds of years before her, and who’d gotten her head chopped off. Jesus.

“I’m okay, just a headache,” Anne told her, and got up before Jane could ask anymore questions. She appreciated her compassion, she really did... it was just, she didn’t want to be reminded of the mind-blowing discovery Cathy had made at 2 in the morning.

Typical Cathy.

Anne stumbled into the kitchen, where Anna was busy frying eggs on the stove. She had to admit - it smelled really good.

“Mornin’,” Anna chirped with a sly grin on her face. Anne rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at her before sitting down to eat. 

For a while the only sound was the sizzling of the eggs on the frying pan, until Jane and Catherine came into the kitchen, chatting about exams and whatnot. 

Jane went over to help Anna with the eggs although she insisted she was fine, while Catherine went to sit beside Anne. She immediately noticed the blank look on the normally boisterous Anne.

“You good, gremlin?” Catherine asked, using Anne’s nickname. Anne just nodded and yawned. Catherine raised an eyebrow and shared a look with Jane - usually Anne would be bouncing around, full of energy.

Normally, Catherine would be annoyed to the ends of the earth by Anne’s goofy antics. But, her defensive side was kicking in and she could tell something was botherine Anne.

Anna was oblivious, trapped in her own world of scrambled eggs. She whistled as she brought the pan over to Catherine’s plate first, giving her a heap of yellow eggs. Catherine thanked her, though her eyes were still on Anne. 

Anna then gave Anne her eggs, who mumbled a thanks but didn’t look up. Anna finally caught on, sensing that there was something wrong with Anne. She didn’t say anything, though, just exchanging another look with Catherine.

Anne poked at her eggs with her fork, not feeling very hungry. Well, her body was hungy. It was growling loudly, but Anne paid no attention. She could barely stomach the information Cathy had given her and Kat - how would she be able to process eggs?

Wait, that made no sense. Whatever. (A/N: here’s me being dumb ;P)

After Anne had managed to eat a few bites, ignoring the stares of Jane and Catherine, Kat and Cathy stumbled into the kitchen. 

They looked a bit tense, as if they’d been discussing something in the other room. Which was probably what had happened.

Anne managed to catch Kat’s eye, and her cousin gave her a ‘can you believe this shit’ look. Anne raised her eyebrows in amusement but didn’t say anything.

Cathy slid into the chair next to Catherine, and Jane sat down next to Anna as she finished making the eggs. Kat sat next to Anne, and the six ate their breakfast in silence. 

Half of the girls had the other half on their minds, and that other half had... different things running through their brains.

Finally, Catherine broke the silence. “Anne, are you... alright?” she asked tentatively.

Anne barely registered that someone had spoken to her, until Kat nudged her in the ribs slightly. Anne’s head perked up, and she glanced around for a moment, looking dazed.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m good,” she replied, before looking back down in her lap with a furrowed brow. Now Catherine, Jane, and Anna were extremely confused and a bit worried. What had gotten into their friend?

Jane turned to Kat, who also seemed strangely down. She was playing with her eggs, spooning some into her mouth once in a while.

“You good, KittyKat?” Jane asked her playfully. Kat gave her a small smile, but didn’t say anything. 

  
As Jane and Catherine tried to crack the cousins, Anna had set to work on Cathy. 

Anna and Cathy... weren’t exactly similar, to say the least. But they got along just fine and were glad to have each other as friends nonetheless.

It was normal for Cathy to look distracted, or lost. Hell, it was even normal-ish for Cathy to start shaking a little if she’d had too much caffeine.

It was  _ not _ normal for Cathy to not be eating. Cathy was almost always hungry, and although she didn’t get hangry like Anne and Kat, her mood did change a bit if she didn’t have anything to eat. But now, Cathy hadn’t even touched her eggs.

“What’s the matter, Cathy? Don’t like my eggs?” Anna teased, poking her from across the table. Cathy barely noticed, instead muttering under her breath. Anna’s playful smile faded. 

Jane turned to Anna and Catherine. “What the heck is going on with them?” she asked them anxiously.

“It’s like they’ve completely lost their personality,” Catherine agreed, biting her lip. Anna shrugged in agreement.

“I have no idea what’s gotten into them, it certainly is strange.”

“Before breakfast, Anne mentioned an early morning to me,” Jane put in after a moment. Anna and Catherine turned to her with questioning looks on their faces.

“I think it means she was up really early doing something, so she’s tired now,” Jane suggested. Anna almost laughed out loud.

“Anne? Waking up early?” she exclaimed. She then turned, half-expecting Anne herself to glare at her. But her focus was still on her lap, and she was now biting her nails absentmindedly.

“Whatever it is, we should figure it out and help them soon,” Catherine fretted. Jane hummed in agreement before turning back to finish her eggs. 

Anna did the same, as did Catherine, and the three bussed their dishes in the sink before leaving the kitchen, and the three others behind. Jane cast one more glance over her shoulder before turning to Anna and Catherine.

“I’m worried. They’re never like this,” she started. Anna sighed and rubbed her eyes.

“Jane, I know. But we should at least figure out what’s bothering them first,” Anna told her. Jane nodded, and Catherine placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Anne had finally finished her eggs (although they’d gotten pretty cold), but she still hadn’t moved beside to take her fork and eat some eggs. Cathy hadn’t touched her eggs, and Kat had eaten about one third.

(A/N: lmao i should stop talking about eggs so much)

“So,” Anne began in a quiet voice. Cathy and Kat tilted their heads slightly, and the same weary expression could be seen on their faces.

“Are we going to tell them?” she asked. Cathy shrugged, finally seeming to realize their was food in front of her. She quickly ate a bite, then swallowed and answered.

“They’ll think we’re clinically insane,” she stated calmly. 

It was almost as if she’d merely told them that cats have fur, not that their friends might ostracize them for being reincarnated telekinetic teenagers.

Jesus, they could be the star of a sci-fi TV show or something.

“Aren’t we already?” Kat joked dryly, taking a bite of her own eggs.

“Guess so.”

The three couldn’t really think of anything to say after that. Their minds were so consumed by the mere thought that they were goddamn reincarnations.

“Since I’m the one who they’re most likely to believe, I’ll tell them,” Cathy suddenly said. Both cousins turned to her with mouths open.

“Not true!” they chorused, before giving each other a small smile. Then they turned back on Cathy, who’d finished her eggs and was getting up to bus her dishes.

“Yes, true. Anne, they think you’re clinically insane anyways,” Cathy said over her shoulder, dropping her plate into the sink with a small crash. Anne winced at the sound.

“That is so not true,” Anne shot back, glaring at Cathy.

Okay, maybe it was true. Anne  _ did _ have a silly streak... and a pranking streak... and a jokester streak...

Yeah. Cathy was right.

Anne let out a sigh of defeat and crossed her arms, sitting back.

“And Kat, you’re young. They’re just going to baby you and shit,” Cathy told her. Kat gasped indignantly.

“For your information, Cathy, I happen to be the same age as all of you. I’m only the youngest by six months,” she declared with a defiant look in her eyes. Cathy sighed.

“Six months is an awful lot to them,” she told her. Kat rolled her eyes, despite knowing it was true. Jane and Catherine were such _moms_ sometimes!

Anna was cool. She was chill. But still... (excuse the rhyme) Kat knew she would be babied and entertained, and not taken seriously.

“Therefore, I should do it,” Cathy finished, sitting back down in her chair. Anne and Kat scoffed but again, didn’t argue.

“Do what?” came Anna’s voice from the living room.

Anne shot a scared look at Cathy, before quickly shoving eggs into her mouth to finish them. Kat just remained silent, and began braiding her pink-tipped hair.

“Do you guys have a secret to keep from me?” Anna exclaimed, her hand on her chest and her mouth open in mock-shock and hurt.

“No,” Cathy told her simply. Anna raised an eyebrow and dropped the charade.

“Then what was all that ‘I’ll tell them, no,  _ I’ll _ tell them’ about?” she asked. 

“Okay, we do have something to tell you,” Kat blurted, ignoring the look her cousin shot her. She dropped the braid from her hands and stood up, bringing her half-full plate to the counter.

Kat placed the plate down, then leaned against the counter to face Anna, who looked at her expectantly. Kat peered behind her, furrowing her brow.

“Wait, where’s Jane and Catherine?” she asked, turning back to Anne, who shrugged. 

“Probably went to my room or something. I don’t know, I was on my phone. Now, what do you have to say?”

“You sound like you’re accusing us of doing something bad, Ms. Anna,” Anne piped up. She seemed to have regained her confidence, and was now smirking playfully at Anna.

“Yes, you naughty little children. Now, what do you have to say for yourselves?” Anna replied, wiggling her index finger with her other hand on her hip in a fist.

Cathy took a deep breath, wondering how to tell Anna. She was always so chill about everything, but would she be chill about this? 

Only one way to find out.

“How do I say this... we’re reincarnated queens of the past wives of King Henry VIII of England from over 500 years ago,” Cathy said in one breath. She crossed her arms as she waited for Anna’s reaction.

“I... what?”

The girls had never seen Anna at a loss for words. She always had something to say, so to see her unable to form words was a sight to see.

“You’re joking,” she managed after a bit. But the looks on the three girls’ faces were dead serious. “Oh my fucking God.”

“May I ask, how?” she questioned after a moment of pondering the information. “How the hell did you come to this absurd conclusion?”

“It’s... a long story,” Cathy told her, shooting her a small smile. But Anna was too shocked to return it.

“What’s a long story?”

All four heads turned to see the remaining two girls enter the kitchen. Jane and Catherine had accusing looks on their faces, though they were so soft and overpowered by worry they were hardly threatening.

“Hi, mom,” Anne greeted Jane. Jane rolled her eyes. ‘Mom’ was what the girls sometimes called Jane because of her motherly tendencies. Catherine simply raged if anyone called her that, but Jane never did anything about it, so ‘mom’ stuck for Jane but not Catherine.

“We’re reincarnated queens from over 500 years ago, aka the past wives of King Henry VIII of England,” Cathy informed the newcomers.

The longest silence that had ever happened between the girls happened at that moment as Jane and Catherine tried to figure out what the hell they’d just been told.

Finally, Catherine crossed the kitchen and placed a hand on Cathy’s shoulder. Cathy was confused but didn’t say anything.

“Cathy.”

“Yes?”

“Lay off the caffeine, darling.”


	5. No Need For An Asylum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I swear we're not crazy!"
> 
> or
> 
> Anne, Kat and Cathy can finally prove to the other (doubtful) girls that they don't need a cell in a mental asylum, thank you very much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't have a consistent uploading schedule, sorry. 
> 
> somedays i feel like writing, somedays i have nothing on my mind.
> 
> anyways enjoy the chapter
> 
> ps. i might post some mean girls fluff sometime soon, idk

"Excuse me?"

Cathy stared at Catherine, a mixture of shock and offense written all over her face.

Anne snickered, but quickly quenched it when Cathy shot her a glare.

Catherine looked a bit helpless, but luckily Jane stepped forwards to support her.

"Cathy, we know that you have... quite an addiction to caffeine," she began. Cathy crossed her arms.

"No shit, Sherlock," Kat muttered to her cousin, who laughed again, hiding behind her hand.

"But I agree with Catherine. I don't think it's having a very positive effect on your health," Jane said, ignoring the cousins. 

Cathy raised an eyebrow. Kat and Anne were still laughing under their breaths, while Catherine and Jane were looking at her with concern.

"Guys, really, I appreciate the concern. But my addiction is none of your business," Cathy told them. Jane stepped forwards from Catherine's side, opening her mouth to speak.

"Really," Cathy protested, cutting her off.

She could already feel the tears threatening to betray her pricking the corners of her eyes. Her breaths quickened, and suddenly it felt like the room was stuffy and too hot.

"Cathy?" Kat asked. She had stopped laughing, and was now looking at Cathy the same way Catherine and Jane were.

She couldn't stand it.

Cathy hated pity. It made her seem weak.

Without another word, Cathy fled the kitchen and streamed out the back door into Anna's backyard.

It was quiet, the only sounds being the chirps of the birds and the rustle of wind through the leaves. There was a slight morning chill tickling Cathy's arms as she sat down in the grass, ignoring the dew seeping through her pants, and she hugged her knees closer to her chest, trying to stop the sobs from heaving through her body.

Cathy heard the sliding door to the backyard open, and she buried her face into her knees, expecting Catherine or Jane.

"Cathy?"

Cathy spun around. The person who'd followed her was none other than Kat.

She'd slid out the door, and was now closing it gently, as if she was afraid to disturb her.

"Are you alright?" she asked, sitting down next to her. Cathy shrugged, burying her face back in her knees again. She could still see Kat's face through a sliver of space in her arms, and she was frowning. But she stayed quiet, giving Cathy her space.

"You don't need to talk. I'm just confused. You seemed fine this morning, so I don't know what's going on, and when Catherine brought up the caffeine-"

"Kat."

Cathy cut off the other girl's rambling. She smiled despite the bleakness of the situation - Kat may be a goof sometimes, but she also cared extremely deeply for her friends and when she got worked up about the situation she would go on and on for who knows how long.

Cathy took a deep breath, and Kat watched her nervously.

"It's how I cope. Caffeine helps me focus. Focus on reality. Because I keep having flashbacks to our past lives, and it hurts," she explained softly.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and felt Kat place a hand on her back.

"I had no idea," Kat murmured. She brushed a curly strand of hair behind Cathy's ear. 

"If... if you don't mind me asking," she said after a bit. She seemed timid and hesitant.

"Go ahead. I'm better now," Cathy reassured her. After a confirming glance, Kat continued.

"What do _you_ have flashbacks about? I know I have them about... about my beheading, and Anne has them about kicking the previous queen out of court," Kat asked.

Cathy let out a shuddering breath and wiped the tears that were leaking out. _Stupid weakness._

"Well, I did some research on the queens after you guys went to bed this morning. I couldn't fall asleep right away, so after you guys did I went on Wikipedia and searched for the Catherines. The only one that stood out to me was Catherine Parr, so I clicked on that link. And... she had a pretty shitty life. Well, all of them did, honestly," Cathy added as an afterthought. 

Kat let out a soft giggle. "I guess so. King Henry must've been one asshole of a king," she joked. 

"Yeah. Anyways, apparently she'd had a partner before Henry had taken an interest to her. She had no choice but to go with him, seeing as he was the king, and had to leave the love of her life behind. She outlived Henry, as he died, so she decided to go back to her love. But she found out that he was actually the equivalent of the scum of the Earth, and she died in childbirth giving birth to his son."

Kat was silent for a moment, processing the information. "Jesus," she said after a while.

"That's what I'd had a flashback to this morning. It reminded me of how fucking weak I am. I can put on a mask and pretend I'm fine, but I just lean on caffeine and depend on it. I just use caffeine to block out what I can't deal with."

Cathy buried her face in her hands, and Kat could hear a muffled sniffle. She wrapped an arm around her.

"You're not weak, Cath. You're one of the strongest girls I know." Cathy shot her a teary smile.

"And I know for a fact Jane and Catherine won't bother you if they find out that's the reason for your addiction," Kat assured her, rubbing her back comfortingly. Cathy smiled gratefully.

"Thank you," she told her. Kat just grinned back at her, then stood up and offered her hand to Cathy. "Now, let's go inside, shall we?"

Cathy took her hand, stood up, and attempted to brush off the grass and dirt from her butt. Kat laughed, letting go of Cathy's hand to twist around and check hers.

"There's grass all over my butt!" Kat squealed, and Cathy broke into a wide grin. The young girl had made her feel a lot better.

"Same here," Cathy snickered. "Oh well."

The two girls re-entered the house, and Kat led Cathy back to the kitchen where Anne, Jane and Catherine were having a heated conversation. Anna was just standing to the side, leaning on the counter and watching, occasionally throwing her opinion in.

"It's dangerous! You can't just make someone go cold turkey," Anne said. Jane crossed her arms and glanced at Catherine.

"It's even more dangerous to keep letting her addiction overpower her!" she shot back. Cathy paled as she realized they were talking about her and her caffeine addiction.

"Guys, shut up," Anne said hastily as her eye caught Cathy. She noticed that she looked a lot more fragile than this morning. What had her and Kat discussed about outside to make the almighty Cathy look so... small?

Cathy swallowed nervously as Catherine and Jane turned to her. Their faces melted from anger into shock, then a mixture of concern (haha, where's the surprise in that) and embarrassment.

"Cathy..." Jane began.

"I don't think it's a good time," Kat cut her off. She steered Cathy right around, and shot one last glance over her shoulder as she pushed Cathy into the living room.

"Do you... wanna talk about it?" Kat asked. Cathy just remained silent, biting her lip and fiddling with her fingers. After a moment she shrugged. "Not really."

"That's okay. I'll be in the kitchen if you need me, okay?" Kat murmured, giving her one last sympathetic pat before going back into the kitchen.

Cathy could vaguely hear Kat starting a discussion with the other girls in a much softer tone, but she tuned it out. She didn't want to be reminded of it.

Cathy had always been good at blocking out negative emotions. She was determined to put all her focus into her schoolwork and do a good job so she could pursue her writing career like shed always wanted to. Her parents had told her that if she wanted to start a career in writing, she had to excel in school. 

At first, Cathy had been doing okay in school. She was an average student - mostly B+'s to A-'s, and the occasional A. 

Then one day, as she'd been studying in the kitchen, she saw that her mom had left her full coffee mug on the table as she'd left the room in a hurry to answer a call. Curious, Cathy had snuck a sip out of the cup. 

It had been slightly bitter, but Cathy had enjoyed it. Before she'd known it, she'd downed the whole cup.

Guilty, Cathy had quickly made another cup, hoping her mother wouldn't notice. Thankfully, her mom had still been on the phone when she'd re-entered the kitchen to grab her coffee, and hadn't noticed.

Cathy had returned to her work... and found out she'd been able to concentrate much easier.

Well, she called it concentration. It was more... block out other thoughts, which makes focusing easier. It didn't necessarily sharpen her senses, but it blocked out all the bad thoughts, such as her parents putting her down for not wanting to be a doctor.

So ever since then, whenever she had the chance, she'd sneak a cup of coffee. She'd feel a little guilty, but would tell herself she'd be making her parents happy by doing better in school.

And when the nightmares and intrusive thoughts about the _painful_ experiences of death and the commanding rule of the King, Cathy had found herself leaning on caffeine even more.

Now, hearing her friends fret about the effects of it on her health was scary. 

The one thing that Cathy hated about caffeine was the fact that it kept her jittery and awake. Sometimes she'd be so tired she'd collapse into bed, hoping to fall asleep.

But thanks to coffee, she'd lie awake and worry more than ever about the uncertainties in her future.

It was terrifying, especially to a disoriented teenager at 4 in the morning.

Cathy hugged her knees up to her chin, like how she'd been sitting outside. She was curled up on her little pile of blankets that she hadn't bothered to fold earlier in the morning.

She remained still for a while. Without having drank a cup of coffee that morning, she felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier until eventually they closed, and she was lulled off into a sea of darkness and nothing.

-

"Hey, you awake, Cath?"

 _Yawn._ A big one.

"...huh?"

She was only half awake, feeling the bleariness settle into her bones. Groaning, she pushed herself up and rubbed her eyes.

When they opened a bit wider, they were met with the wide, warm brown eyes of Catherine.

"Hi, Catherine," she murmured, yawning again. 

Wow, it had felt good to finally sleep peacefully for once without constantly waking up or having nightmares.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked softly. Cathy could hear the tenderness in her tone, and normally she'd have made a snarky comment, but she was still relaxing in the peace of her sleep.

"A lot better, actually," she responded blissfully. Catherine nodded and stood up. Behind her, Cathy could see the others standing and watching.

Anne was clutching Kat's arm, and they both exchanged a glance before doing the same with Cathy.

She could immediately read it.

They'd told the other girls. How much of the story, Cathy had no idea.

"So..." Anna started uncertainly. Cathy cracked a smile at her attempt to make conversation.

Jane's face stretched into a frown. "...reincarnation?" she asked questioningly.

"Judging as you're not calling to have us placed in a mental asylum... you believe us?" Cathy stated. 

There was a bit of silence. Anna bit her lip, clearly looking conflicted. Jane simply looked tired, and Catherine looked awfully confused.

"Yes, we believe you. We don't have a reason not to," Catherine started, clasping her hands in front of her and shrugging.

"But do you mind explaining?" Anna piped up, raising a finger. Cathy chuckled.

"Of course. It's an awful lot to take in," she said understandingly. She stood up and took a seat on the long couch, gesturing for Anne and Kat to sit beside her. Jane, Anna and Catherine took the seats across from them.

"To start with. Have you guys had any... nightmares, visions, flashback thingies, to a fat king with a red beard?" Cathy asked, albeit a bit blunt.

Catherine blinked, caught off guard. "Actually, yes. But what does that have to do with this?"

Cathy turned to Anne and Kat, surprise written on her face. "What exactly did you guys tell them?"

"That we're reincarnations of 500 year old queens of England," Kat stated. 

"Okay..." Cathy trailed off, wondering how to explain it to them.

"Okay," she repeated. "We're basically the reincarnations of the wives of King Henry VIII of England. He had six wives, and there are six of us. Their names were Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anna, Katherine and Catherine. Notice something?" Cathy asked.

Jane's eyes were practically as wide as saucers. "How in the world is that possible?"

Anna, who'd been studying her nails, looked a bit uncomfortable. "That's fucked up." Catherine nodded in agreement.

Normally, Catherine would have reprimanded Anna for swearing. But then again... these weren't normal circumstances, were they?

"If I'm not mistaken judging by the pattern between Anne, Kat and I, Catherine. You should be having flashbacks to being kicked out of a palace by the weird King. Jane, you should be having flashbacks to... a painful death by childbirth," Cathy said, her voice taking on a nerdy tone. She tried not to wince when she mentioned childbirth, not wanting to relive the painful memories.

Both Catherine and Jane looked shocked, and in complete discomfort. Jane, especially, looked pained, and Cathy felt empathy for her.

Cathy then sighed, realizing Anna was still waiting for her queen's explanation. 

"Jesus, how do I say this without... boosting your massive ego?" Cathy said dryly, looking pointedly at Anna, who raised her hands in mock surrender.

"I didn't say anything!" she protested, but Cathy could clearly hear the glee in her voice.

"Here goes. Anna, your queen was divorced by the king for not looking as good as he thought she did-" Anna deflated a little - "-but after he... gave her a shit ton of money, and she essentially lived out her days as a single queen in a palace, surrounded by riches."

Anna sat up straighter again, a cocky grin on her face. "Ha! I'm the queen of the castle, bitches!" she crowed.

Anne rolled her eyes. "And there's the pump to inflate her ego."

"Compared to us, she _did_ have the best life," Kat stated with a shrug. Catherine, Jane and Anne turned to her, curiosity sparking their gazes.

"What happened to you three?" Jane asked, jutting her chin at them.

Cathy rubbed her eyes, not really wanting to dive into the story. She'd probably end up telling them about her... coping mechanisms, which would probably result in a whole bunch of unneeded worry.

"I'll start with Anne. She was the second wife after you, Catherine. Basically... King Henry took an interest to Anne while he was still married to Catherine, so he made a whole church that was copy pasted from the original church he was part of, except you could divorce. So he divorced Catherine so he could marry Anne.

"Then he starts sleeping around the town, which makes Anne angry. So she decides to do the same, resulting in... her beheading on behalf of charges of incest and adultery."

More silence.

"This day could not get any stranger," Anna mumbled, picking at her nails. Jane hummed in agreement.

"And Kat." Cathy was a bit hesitant. Kat had been terribly sensitive after her nightmare... Cathy didn't want to cause her anymore grief than she'd already experienced last night.

"Kat was... 19, when the King decided to behead her after marrying him," Cathy began. She felt Kat shrink beside her, and was thankful when Anne wrapped her arm comfortingly around her cousin.

"Eww," Catherine interrupted, wrinkling her nose. Then she looked around. "I'm sorry. But _19_? How old was he?!"

"Uh, 30-something," Cathy started. Catherine fake gagged, then shot a sympathetic look at Kat. "Poor Katherine."

"The reason she was beheaded was because... men had been taking advantage of her and sexually abusing her all her life, and she'd finally thought she'd found a friend in one coutier named Thomas. But he just wanted her body, not her for who she was, so when people found out, Thomas only defended himself.

"In court, when Kat was tried for... something I can't remember, instead of staying quiet and possibly being able to stay alive, she protested, telling the court about what the men had done. But no one believed her, and the King beheaded her," Cathy finished.

"Oh, shit," Anne exclaimed, then pressed a soft kiss to Kat's forehead, who was clearly trembling. "It's okay, Kat," she whispered. "No stupid fat king is gonna hurt you without going through me first," Anne reassured her. Kat smiled, though she was clearly scared.

Catherine was sitting, wide-eyed on the couch, her fingers pressed to her temples. "I cannot believe what I'm hearing."

Cathy pursed her lips. "It's the only explanation that fits the weird-ass dreams we've all been having," she put forward.

"How about you? If you don't mind me asking," Jane added hurriedly, after seeing Cathy's face pale a little bit. But she had to push through - her friends would _not_ see her weak. 

"Well, uh, same as you, Jane. Just a bit different. I was the final queen. I outlived the king, but when I went back to my true love - who I had to leave to marry the king - I found out he was a terrible person, and that I would be having his child. Then I died giving birth to her (what gender was Cathy's child I'm sorry I don't know)."

"Ouch," Anna commented, clucking her tongue. "We all had shitty lives."

She didn't even get the chance to continue before Catherine shot her an exasperated look. "NOT the time, Anna," she scolded her. Anna simply smirked and stayed quiet.

"What do we do, now that we all know?" Kat asked softly. 

"Good question," Catherine added. "What _do_ we do?"

"..."

"Don't look at me," Cathy protested, when five pairs of eyes turned on her. "I'm not the boss, or something!"

"You _are_ the smartest here," Anne told her with a shrug. 

"I mean, true," Cathy muttered after a moment. "But that doesn't necessarily mean I know what the hell I'm doing."

"Don't worry. Now that we all know, we can all deal with it together," Jane assured her with a smile, which Cathy returned.

"After all, we're best friends," Anne added, before shaking her head. "That sounded _very_ cheesy, but it's true."

Cathy looked around at the circle of her friends. 

And in that moment, she was very glad to have them, no matter how annoying, overbearing, or cocky they could be. They were her friends, and they had each other's backs.

-

(A/N: my friend and i had a discussion a few weeks ago about what 'having each other's backs' meant. if you think about it literally, it's just weird - taking somone's spine out of their back for them? but i guess it means support. WHATEVER ty for reading, i love you all if you've read my dumb thought process i'm sorry it's late at night and i'm posting this tmr OKAY BYE)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> jeez, all that buildup to this chapter, WHEW


	6. Like Twilight!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one is so short. it's just a call between cathy and jane.
> 
> i don't want to leave you guys with no updates, but i find it pretty hard to churn out 6 page long chapters on docs consistently. 
> 
> i might make chapters shorter in the future, this is just my apologies if i don't update as fast as you'd like.

[call transcript]

Jane: Cathy? Are you here?

Cathy: Jane? What’s wrong?

_ Cathy fiddled with the edge of her shirt, leaning back against her chair. She’d been writing an essay for fun (NERD) when Jane had called. _

Jane: Hey, sorry it’s so late... I just needed to talk to you...

Cathy: Jane, do you think I sleep?

Jane: Oh, uh- sorry. I’m tired cuz I  _ do  _ sleep, wait that sounded offensive... *yawns* I’m sorry, I-

Cathy: Jane, it was a joke. Are you alright?

Jane: I.. it’s 3 in the morning, this is the latest I’ve ever been awake... I’m tired, pretty sure I’m delirious.

Cathy: Why’d you call?

Jane: Hmm? Oh... uh, I had a... *yawns* a bad dream.

Cathy: A bad dream? What do you mean?

Jane: It’s... like you warned me. I had this little boy, pretty sure I gave birth to him, and then... big flashes of pain. It was so hot, and it hurt so much...

_ It sounds like she’s crying. Or at least, sniffling. _

Cathy: Shh, Jane, calm down. Are you okay? Do you need me to... come over or something?

Jane: No, I’m better now. That was an hour ago. I haven’t been able to fall back asleep, though.

Cathy: Oh. Well... try to drink some water, maybe lie down.

Jane: Okay, I’ll try... how do you know how to fall asleep when you’ve never done it before?

_ A little giggle. Cathy can’t help but smile - Jane sounds almost drunk when she’s sleep deprived. _

Cathy: I read a lot. It seems to help other people, but not me.

Jane: Funny. Okay, well, I’m gonna get some water.

_ A pause. _

Jane: Is it okay if I stay on the line with you?

Cathy: Of course. 

Jane: Thanks.

_ There’s a stretch of silence, and Cathy could just make out the sounds of footsteps echoing in the silence on the other line.  _

_ After a bit more quiet, there was the sound of a glass clinking and the tap running. Then more footsteps as Cathy assumed Jane was heading back to bed. _

Jane: Thanks.

_ She takes a sip of water, and Cathy hears her swallow. _

Cathy: No problem.

Jane: I feel better now. That dream... it shook me real bad.

Cathy: I know. It’s pretty sh- crappy.

_ She saved herself just in time from saying ‘shitty’. She knew Jane hated it, and she didn’t want to provoke her when she was so fragile now. _

Jane: He was such a beautiful baby, Cathy. Was he my son?

_ Okay, now Jane sounded delirious like she’d claimed earlier. Her voice was dreamy and dazed. _

Cathy: I-- Yes, I’m pretty sure. His name was Edward.

Jane: *giggles* Like from  _ Twilight _ !

Cathy: Yep. 

Jane: Anyways, I feel better. I’m gonna go back to bed. Thanks, Cathy.

Cathy: Like I said, any time. I don’t mind at all.

Jane: Good night, Cath.

Cathy: Night, Jane.

_ Click. _


	7. Early Mornin' Research

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catherine is trying to process the information given to her by Cathy, Anne, and Kat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey sorry this is so short, i'm still getting into the groove of writing again, ya know?
> 
> this one is from catherine's pov, the first lol

Catherine awoke in the morning to her alarm clock. She rolled over and shut it off, then blinked the sleep from her eyes as she stared up at the ceiling.

 _Reincarnation, huh._ The topic had kept her up late last night, pondering everything she'd ever known about herself.

Catherine had never really been religious. Her family never went to church, or temple, or synagogue. She'd never been enforced to believe in a God or a higher power. So she'd never really thought about the prospect of reincarnation all too much, seeing as it was connected to religion and a second life, in a way. (don't come 4 me, i'm not religious either)

_I was the first queen. Then Anne kicked me out of the court._

She felt quite bitter at that, although she knew that her friend Anne had nothing to do with it, of course. Though, it could explain the playful insults she and Anne fired at each other on a daily basis. Petty revenge from a past life they'd known nothing about.

Frowning, Catherine took her phone from her night stand and clicked it on to display the time. 7:06. 

She still had plenty of time to get ready, so she settled back down in her covers and opened Safari. She was curious to know more.

 **king henry the viii wives,** she typed into the search bar. It loaded, then several links popped up. The first led to a Wikipedia page.

Catherine knew not to trust Wikipedia - anyone could edit an article and insert false information - but she didn't need specific details, only broad ideas so she could grasp the situation. She clicked and it directed her to Wikipedia.

There were a few links redirecting to different sites. Six links for each of the wives. Catherine listed them off in her head: Catherine of Aragon, which was herself, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. She chose her queen's page.

After reading the page and looking at a few pictures, Catherine had a broad idea of her queen. She'd been the first to marry King Henry VIII, after the death of her previous spouse. She'd had a few children, some of which had died. Only one had survived - Mary. Catherine of Aragon - or Catalina, in her native Spanish language, had also led troops in the war against the Scottish (A/N: is that right? i don't trust wikipedia lmao). 

_Damn, I was a badass queen,_ she thought with a smirk as she used her finger to scroll down further.

When Catherine of Aragon had passed of cancer, the entire country had mourned, for she'd been a beloved queen.

That was nice, she thought. It sort of reflected her in real life - Catherine was a well-liked, well respected girl at school, decent grades and participant in nearly everything. 

_Oh no._

Catherine had spent so long reading the time had clicked past 8:15. If she didn't hurry, she would be late to school. Catherine _**hated**_ tardiness.

She hopped out of bed and got ready faster than ever before. She tied her ever-poofy hair up into a high ponytail and ran downstairs, then quickly ate a breakfast of oatmeal. Her mother was still asleep, probably from working a late shift last night, so she'd packed her lunch last night. She grabbed the tupperware from the fridge and shoved it in her bag, not bothering for a lunch bag.

She pulled on a light yellow jacket and her sneakers, then dashed out the door. Huffing for breath a little, she checked her phone. 8:38. If she hurried, she could make it to school by 8:45.

She ran as fast as she could without bumping her things around in her bag, pounding down the sidewalk. Soon the school came into view, and she dashed into the courtyard where a bunch of students were already waiting. Looking around, she spotted the recognizable bright pink flashes of Kat's hair, and walked towards her friends.

Everyone was already there, save for Jane, who was a pretty deep sleeper and often came late.

"Hey guys," she said, winded. They turned to her and grinned. 

"Hi, Catherine," Kat greeted her. "You look tired."

"I woke up super late and almost forgot about school," she explained with a laugh. Anne smirked.

"By super late, do you mean 5:00am?" she quipped. Catherine rolled her eyes. 

"No, I mean 7:06," she said with a glance. Anne chuckled. "Of course that's early for you."

"Early for me is noon," Anna said with a wink. The rest of the girls laughed, but their attention was caught by none other than Jane, running up to them, her platinum blonde hair streaming messily behind her.

"Hey, guys!" she greeted cheerfully and very out of breath. "I actually made it on time!" she said.

Cathy laughed. "Good job," she said. Jane smiled at her, and Catherine could see something unspoken behind her eyes as she looked at Cathy.

"Hope I helped you last night," Cathy murmured. Anne cocked her head, confused. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Cathy turned to her. "Oh, Jane called me around 3 in the morning 'cause she couldn't sleep. Nightmares about the past life. You know, the usual," she snarked. Kat giggled. Normally, Cathy cracked few to no jokes. But when she did, they were pretty funny.

"Yeah, it kept me up pretty late. But I actually got up on time," Jane said proudly. Anna patted her on the back. "Good job, mate-"

But she was cut off by the bell.

"Damn. You can tell us all about it later, though!" Anna joked, giving Jane a wink. She rolled her eyes playfully and shoved her friend.

"Hey!" she exclaimed with an expression of mock hurt. She was just about to retort when Catherine put a hand on Anna's shoulder.

"Anna, as much as I love watching you guys fight," she began sarcastically. "Mr. Beffers is going to _kill_ us if we're late."

Anna slumped, before giving Jane a glare. "I'm not done with you. Mark my words!!!"

Catherine rolled her eyes and began dragging Anna away, while Jane raised an eyebrow and smirked.

The six girls then split up to go to their classes after saying goodbye to each other.

"Meet up at the weed corner at recess, 'kay?" Kat called (sounds like catcalled lmao) from beside Anne, to the retreating figures of Anna, Catherine, Jane, and Cathy.

"Got it!" Catherine called, giving her a thumbs up. "See you then!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i'm reading over it and noticing how fricken rough it is. like it gets rushed near the end, sorry ;(
> 
> hope y'all enjoyed :)
> 
> whew it's good to be back, ty for all your support luvs


	8. Coming to Terms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coming to terms... but with what, exactly? There are so many things left unclear or uncertain. Why? How? None of them know anything, which scares them even more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for disappearing for a week... i'm so tired lately and i barely had enough time/energy/motivation to get this one done... WHOOF
> 
> anyways, hope u enjoy!

“Welcome to the official meeting of the best group of people to ever exist,” Anna announced as Jane and Catherine arrived to the weed corner. 

Anne smirked and rolled her eyes. “Enough with the drama,” she told Anna, who only looked slightly abashed. Then Anne turned to the rest of the girls.

“So, we’re all here. And since we have about an hour, let’s discuss.”

“Wow, I’ve never seen _you_ use your time so wisely,” Cathy remarked. Anne shot her a glare. “Shut up! I’m just as eager as you to get answers about this whole shit-show,” she snapped.

Jane flinched at the swearing, and Catherine shot her a look in turn. “Pipe down, young lady.”

“I- we’re the same age!” Anne protested. Kat giggled. 

“Everyone, can we please just start?” Cathy asked tiredly. When she had all the girls’ attention, she pulled out a small notebook and a pen. Jane raised an eyebrow. “What’s that for?

“I’m a left-brained person,” Cathy explained. “So I’m going to use this to write notes and stuff.”

“Nerd,” Anne whispered to her cousin. Kat laughed softly, which earned them both a glare from Cathy.

“So!” Catherine said loudly, deliberately stepping between the cousins and Cathy’s line of sight. “Let’s get down to business,” she announced, taking off her sweater and placing it on the ground. Then she sat on it, which prompted the rest of the girls to do the same.

They were now all sitting in a circle, with Cathy’s back in the corner so she could face them all.

“So...” she began, pursing her lips while looking at her blank notebook. “Where to begin?”

None of the girls answered. There wasn’t _really_ an answer for any of.. .this, anyways.

“Let’s see... When did your flashbacks/dream sequences/visions/whatever the heck you want to call them start?” Cathy asked, sweeping her bright gaze around the circle. 

Jane chuckled. “You sound like an interviewer.”

“Guess so,” she muttered dismissively. 

“Umm, mine started about a week ago,” Kat piped up, playing with the sleeve of her white sweater. Cathy nodded and jotted it down in her neat, loopy handwriting, adding a line underneath the title.

_Flashbacks_

_Kat - 2 weeks_

She looked back up.

“I’d say.. A couple days ago.” Catherine added.

_Catherine - 2-3 days_

“Mine haven’t started yet.”

_Anna -_

She left Anna’s blank. She’d fill it in when Anna began having them. She wondered what they would be about? According to the research she’d done, Anna had had the easiest life out of the six.

“One week. Remember when I called you?” Jane said. Cathy nodded and pursed her lips, writing it down.

_Jane - 1 week_

“Anne?” Cathy asked, turning to her. Anne paused, looking thoughtful. “Hmm.. I’d say, same as Kat. I honestly find that funny, us being the beheaded cousins and all.”

Kat stiffened visibly, and Anne’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit, Kat, I’m sorry-”

“No, no, it’s okay,” she interrupted softly, biting her lip. Anne looked extremely remorseful, and placed a hand on her knee. Kat gave her a grateful smile, fidgeting with the strings of her hoodie.

“Are you alright?” Jane asked her, giving her an empathetic smile. Kat nodded. “Yeah.”

_Anne - 2 weeks_

_*beheaded cousins??_

Before continuing with the meeting, Cathy looked up at her friend. She felt a surge of affection for the sweet, optimistic Kat, who’d comforted her at Anna’s sleepover.

“Is it okay if we continue?” she asked. Kat nodded again.

“Yeah. It just.. caught me off guard, is all,” she replied. “Just give me a warning or something next time, ‘kay?”

Cathy gave her a thumbs up, then returned to her note and scribbled something under Kat’s name.

_Kat - 2 weeks_

_*give warning before talking about beheading_

Cathy frowned at her notes. They weren’t adding up; all the flashback times were random. 

Catherine could almost see the gears turning and clicking in her friend’s mind, and put her hand on the notebook which was resting on Cathy’s left knee.

“Hey, don’t worry. We’ll figure it out together, okay?” she said reassuringly. Cathy gave her half a smile, but Catherine could tell she was still conflicted.

After a pause, almost as if it were an after thought, Cathy looked back down and wrote her own note.

_Cathy (me) - 4 weeks_

Of course, she wasn't going to show anyone that her flashbacks had started much earlier, because that would cause unnecessary stress.

There was a rustling noise as Anna reached into her pocket. There had been a short silence, as Jane and Anne kept an eye on Kat just in case, while Catherine watched Cathy think.

Anne’s eyes flickered up and widened when she saw the pack of gummy worms in Anna’s hands.

“Anyone hungry?” Anna piped up with a smirk. All the girls’ heads looked up like Anne, and Anna chuckled. “Guess that’s a yes.” She popped open the bag and reached inside.

She gave the first one to Kat, who nibbled on it. Then, Jane, who didn’t eat it just yet, Anne, who gobbled it down quickly, Catherine, who took a regular bite, and lastly, Cathy.

Or at least, she held it out to Cathy. At first the nerd didn’t even notice the gummy worm being held out to her, she was so lost in thought.

“Hey, big brain. Want a gummy worm?” Anna offered, shaking the candy.

“Huh?” Cathy murmured, looking up with a surprised look on her face. Anna grinned, and Cathy took it. She stuck it in her mouth and began sucking on it as she tapped her pen to her chin thoughtfully.

Anne’s nose wrinkled. “Ew! Why do you _suck_ your gummy worm?!” she cried. 

Cathy raised an eyebrow, giving her a glance. “I dunno. I like the flavour?” she said. She sounded distant. 

“That’s gross,” Anne declared with a small shudder. Kat giggled, and Jane smiled. At least she seemed to be loosening up a little bit. And she was dealing with the mentions of beheading much better than when Cathy had found her at the sleepover, crying in a corner.

(A/N: i do NOT have any problems with anyone who sucks gummy worms. I just think anne has petty problems with cathy sucking her gummy worm lol)

Anna took one for her own and shoved it in her mouth, enjoying the flavour. All the girls settled into a sort-of-relaxed silence, the only sounds being the background noise of children playing and the scratch of Cathy’s pen on the notebook pages.

Catherine rolled up her sleeve and checked her watch. 

“Oh, hey guys, the bell’s gonna ring in 3,” she announced. The other girls mumbled stuff before getting up. 

Cathy was the last, not even noticing the girls were starting to leave the weed corner before Kat tugged on her elbow. Specifically, the one holding her chin, so when Kat pulled, Cathy’s head slipped and she almost banged her head.

“Hey!” she cried. Kat giggled. “C’mon, Cathy!”

“I’m coming,” she said tiredly.

She stumbled after her friend group, which was beginning to disperse to their respective lines while waiting to be let inside the school.

“Hey, Cathy?” Anne asked, hanging back a little so she could talk to her friend. Cathy was clicking her pen absentmindedly before turning to look at Anne.

Anne blinked, seeming to collect her thoughts before she spoke. “You know, if you ever need a break, you can take one? No one will mind if you miss a day, and you won’t miss much, considering you’re literally smarter than half the teachers here.”

Cathy was taken aback by Anne’s sudden, but, thoughtful, statement. She gave her a smile.

“Thank you, Anne. Sometimes I just feel so tired... maybe I’ll take a day off,” she replied. Anne widened her eyes slightly.

“Wow, that sounds so unlike you. I’d expected you to be all ‘I can’t miss a day! I’m too smart!’ or something,” she joked, flapping her hands and changing her voice to (attempt to) match Cathy’s. Cathy rolled her eyes, but she wasn’t offended.

“Yeah. Guess I’m _really_ in need of a break, then,” she replied, rubbing her eyes with a laugh.

“Hope it gets better,” Anne murmured after a while, giving her an awkward pat before heading off to join Catherine for their science class.

Cathy stared after her friend with amusement, but also gratefulness. She certainly hadn’t expected Anne of all people to give her advice like that, but she definitely wasn’t complaining. She decided to take that advice to heart and take a day off sometime in the next week.

“Cath, you coming?” Kat called ( **again** hahaha) over her shoulder. Cathy scurried forwards beside her friend, who was now walking alone since Catherine, Jane, Anna, and Anne had all branched off.

Still, although Cathy felt much more relaxed and calm after Anne’s advice giving, she still felt that nagging feeling at the back of her brain. 

When Cathy gets into something, or has a mystery she wants to solve, her brain Will. Not. Drop. It. Until she gets answers. It was sometimes a drive for her to work harder, but now it was giving her a massive headache.

She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.

 _Maybe I should lay off the coffee like Catherine said and just sleep for once,_ she thought bemusedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> parrlyn? hinted in my fic?? *eyes emoji* | jk, i ship parrward more lolz
> 
> hope you enjoyed! wash ur hands and stay safe, bye now <3


	9. Protected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna catches Cathy off guard with a strange panic attack of sorts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all! super sorry for updating more than a month late, i'm sorryyyyyy.. life, ya know?
> 
> anyhoo, i changed the name! i like maze of memories a bit more, so hope you don't mind.
> 
> enjoy!

“Anna.”

Mr. Henry’s voice shook Anna from her stupor. Her eyes snapped open, and her dark skin flushed when she met the angry gaze of her teacher.

“Sorry, sir,” she mumbled, straightening her back. In the moment, she regretted not having long hair to cover her face, so she just stared straight ahead at the board, trying to understand what Mr. Henry was teaching. Something about metaphors and conjunctions? God knew what he was droning on about.

Instead of attempting to catch on to the lesson, Anna decided to focus all her attention on her new pen. It was a baby blue colour, and on the opposite end of the ink nub, there was a rubber eyeball. 

These kinds of pens were usually sold at the book fair, and only 4th graders were ever interested. But, alas, Anna was the embodiment of a 4th grader, after all - at least, she believed she was with pride. So, she’d bought it the second she’d seen it at the counter of Dollarama.

She turned the eyeball so it was facing her, so close to her eyes that they were crossed. The rubber eyeball had a dark blue iris, with red veins. Many of her classmates thought Anna was strange, considering her childish interests and tendencies, but she never really cared much.

(A/N: my hc is that anna is a luz kinnie from toh ;P)

The droning voice of Mr. Henry faded away as Anna let herself get lost in her staring competition with the pen tip. She tried to silence all her jumbled thoughts, just a vast, grey space being left behind.

It was very peaceful in the silence. No worries, no nagging thoughts. Anna liked it.

Until, through the fog, something came. 

A big black blob. Inside her mind, it was growing, faster and faster, and consuming the dreamland Anna had made for herself. The black enveloped everything and magnified all her worries, her anxious feelings, her deprecating thoughts. It hurt and she wanted nothing more but to escape.

In the real world, Anna was having what one would call a panic attack. She barely registered when the eyeball pen slipped through her grasp and clattered to the floor. It echoed loudly, and Mr. Henry’s pointed glare turned to her once more. But it shifted quickly as he noticed Anna’s demeanor.

Anna’s right leg, which was dangling in the aisle between her desk and another kid’s beside her, was bouncing so hard it was shaking her entire body. Her eyes faced forwards with a vacant stare, but they bubbled with terror beneath. Beads of sweat were already trailing down her face.

She was trapped in her own mind.

_Worthless._

_At least Lady Seymour was worthy of the King’s affection._

_Otherworldly peasant._

Words barraged her and left charred, smoking dents. It hurt all over, she wanted nothing more than for the pain to **stop**.

“Anna? Are you alright?”

Somewhere in the real world, Cathy was shaking Anna’s shoulder, her eyes wide with concern and fear for her friend. But Anna was stuck, unshakeable.

_Where are her manners?_

_To reject the king, how rude and despicable._

The whispers became shouts, battering Anna and causing her to crumple to the ground.

Cathy pulled her hand back in shock when Anna fell off her chair. She hadn’t moved, or even indicated that she was in pain. Though she was still blinking, her eyes were vacant, her breathing shallow.

At this point, the entire class had turned to Anna in shock. Many of her classmates’ eyes were filled with concern, but a few were laughing at the spectacle. 

Mr. Henry’s expression was unreadable. He was standing at the front of the class, staring at the scene. 

Cathy’s head was swinging around, searching for help. When her gaze landed on Mr. Henry, her anger and worry overpowered any sense of respect for her teacher.

“Do something, don’t just stand there!” she shouted at him. The class stared at her, but a few people reacted. 

One of the girls, Bessie, lunged forwards and proceeded to assist Cathy in helping Anna stand up. Cathy shot her a thankful glance, as they grunted and lifted her up.

Realizing their teacher would be of no help whatsoever - for _some_ strange reason, he still hadn’t done anything to help - Cathy and Bessie looped Anna’s arms around their shoulders.

Anna had regained some of her consciousness, and her blank mask shattered. She began sobbing profusely, to the shock of everyone. No one had ever seen Anna cry - she was one of the most bubbly, cheerful people at the school.

But now, tears were flowing freely from her eyes. Her body was still weak, so she had to lean heavily on Bessie and Cathy, but she realized where she was.

“C-Cathy?” she stammered. Cathy met her eyes and gave her a soft glance, feeling sympathetic when Anna’s brown eyes widened with terror.

“What’s happening?” Anna murmured, barely audible. This time, Bessie answered.

“You started... having a panic attack, or something. Some scary shit,” she said with a shaky laugh, trying to lighten up Anna’s mood. But she wasn’t very consolable at the moment.

They loped down the hall, at a snail’s pace, until they reached the office. Bessie pushed open the door, and the secretaries all looked up as the three girls entered.

“Oh dear, what’s happened?” One of them looked up from where she was filing paper. She peered over her thick-rimmed glasses with a look of extreme concern.

“She had some sort of... panic attack in class. We’re not quite sure, to be honest,” Cathy explained. Anna swallowed thickly, looking down at her shoes.

“Oh, no. Come, dear. You can lie down for a bit,” the second secretary offered. She placed down the phone she’d been holding, walking around the desk to offer a hand to Anna.

Anna didn’t take it - she seemed too weak. The secretary pursed her lips, then gestured to Bessie and Cathy to bring her to the smaller room with the bed.

After they’d laid Anna down and she looked a little more comfortable, the secretary turned the Bessie and Cathy, who were anxiously watching from the doorway.

“Thank you, girls. You can return to class if you’d like,” she told them with a soft smile, tinged with worry for Anna. Bessie nodded, but Cathy hesitated, peering at Anna around the woman.

“Is it okay if I talk to Anna for a little bit? I think I have a theory about what happened,” Cathy asked, cracking her knuckles. The secretary shot another look at Anna, nodding with uncertainty.

“Sure. But be quick, I’m sure you don’t want to miss too much of your lesson,” the secretary said, before walking past her and back to her seat.

“I’m gonna go back, ‘kay?” Bessie said softly. Cathy nodded, her eyes flickering to her for a second.

“Thanks,” came Anna’s small voice from the bed. Both girls’ heads whipped to her, where she was lying, looking so small and frail. Bessie smiled wryly.

“No problem,” she murmured, turning to leave after giving Anna one last glance. Cathy entered the room after she left, closing the door behind them. Then she sat at the foot of the bed, in front of Anna’s curled up legs.

For a moment, the two just sat in silence.

Cathy’s mind was buzzing with questions and overwhelming worry for Anna, while Anna’s mind just felt... empty. She felt completely drained from what had happened in the last ten minutes, and wanted nothing more than to just fall asleep.

“Do you... want to talk about it?” Cathy asked, breaking the quiet. Anna bit the inside cheek, considering it. Did she want to talk about it? What was there to talk about, really? She wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened, either.

“Sure,” she replied, barely a whisper. Cathy inhaled, grasping Anna’s hand with hers. She was startled when she noticed Anna’s hand was as cold as ice - hadn’t she been sweating profusely just a few minutes ago?

 _Damn, I should have brought my notepad,_ Cathy thought.

Then she mentally pinched herself. _Stop being such a left-brain, Cathy,_ she scolded herself. _Be more sympathetic towards the emotions of your friend. If anything, just file it away and think about it later._

“So.. are you okay?” she asked. Anna shrugged awkwardly. “Yeah,” she mumbled. “I just don’t know what the hell happened in class.”

“Heh... you did scare me pretty badly,” Cathy admitted. Anna smiled. 

“I’m full of surprises, Cath.”

Well, at least she hadn’t lost her witty tongue.

“Of course you are,” Cathy responded, sticking her tongue out. Anna giggled, and Cathy felt her body relax a bit. Anna seemed to be better now.

“If you don’t wanna talk about it now, it’s okay. You can tell me when you’re ready,” Cathy told her, squeezing her hand.

“Okay,” Anna whispered. The silence dragged on, but Cathy’s mind was much more quiet this time. 

She realized she was okay with not having answers immediately - as long as Anna was okay, that was all that mattered.

Besides, she had plenty of time to figure everything out - there weren’t any deadlines for this mystery that plagued her friend group.

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading, love you all! stay safe and hydrated my lovely readers <3


	10. Fireworks With A Hint Of Salt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arnold Henry despised children. I needed to emphasize this fact greatly in this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so uh
> 
> i'm too tired to actually flesh out something ft. the queens  
> so we have mr. henry raging about children for several paragraphs
> 
> enjoy :]

Arnold Henry  _ despised _ being a teacher.

He hated waking up two hours earlier than everyone else to drive to school.

He hated the cold coffee he forced himself to swallow down in the teacher's lounge once he arrived.

He hated grading papers, he hated learning concepts to teach them, he hated  _ not having a life. _

But most of all, he despised the children.

Screams, shouts, laughter. It all echoed from the playground as he sat inside his classroom at his desk, forcing himself to not snap a ruler. He got up from his chair and snapped the shutters closed, grumbling as the light was snuffed out from the room.

How had he ended up in this cruddy job in the first place? It felt as if he'd been working here for decades, even though it had barely been over a year.

Arnold sat back down in his chair with a grunt, squinting back at the paper sitting at his desk. His mouth curled in anger as he saw it was the monthly report from the school board.

Goddamnit, they were only in October. He had at least half a year left to go.

Sitting in silence, the muffled shouts filtered through the thin windows to Arnold's left. Fucking children. They were disgusting.

His head fell into his fists on his hands, and he used the last mental restraint he possessed to  **not** scream out loud and curse the entire damned school.

It was only because he'd overspent on his credit card, and he didn't have a job. And, by some chance, he had a teacher's license from when he was an ambitious twenty-year-old out of college.

Oh, how he pitied his younger self. He scoffed dryly, thinking back to when his biggest ambition had been to become a math teacher.

Interrupting his thoughts was the bell, signifying the end of his short reprieve. Arnold sighed loudly and pushed out of his chair again, walking to the door of the classroom. He peered out through the windows beside the door, brows furrowing as he caught sight of the stampede of kids charging towards him.

"Half a year," he repeated under his breath, then opened the door. He was hit in the face with a wave of body odor and ear-piercing chatter.

Arnold's class poured into the room, talking loudly. Loud laughter filled the room as two boys at the back of the class stood on chairs and began reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

"Benjamin, Daniel! Get off those chairs right now," Arnold shouted loudly. The two boys smirked and shouted back. 

"Sorry, sir," Daniel said, jumping down with a loud bang. A group of girls near them winced and shied away as Daniel and Benjamin began cracking what Arnold could only assume were dirty jokes. Arnold pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Settle down, class!"

Arnold's raspy voice echoed throughout the class. The anger and frustration was evident in his tone, though, and quick as mice, the children were all settled in their seats. The teacher glared at them, and the kids in the front row shrunk under his stare.

"I expect you to come in much quieter next time," he said pointedly, before turning to the whiteboard. With a weary sigh, he began teaching the class. The lesson was drilled into his mind; he only had to draw diagrams and repeat it like a boring drone. 

"I'm sure this is a review for many of you. However, if it's not, you'd better start taking notes," he said, snapping his fingers. "The Pythagorean theorem..."

* * *

" _ Please _ tell me you took notes," Kat pleaded, walking backwards in the hallway. She nearly careened into a group of seniors at some point, but didn't even bat an eye at their annoyed expressions.

Jane raised an eyebrow. "You  _ didn't? _ I thought you learned the theorem in grade 7!"

"Jane. Do you think I actually pay attention in class?"

Jane pursed her lips, raising an eyebrow. A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. Kat smirked. 

"Exactly. And I threw all my notes out in a fit of 'I hate school and I'm finally freakin' free for the summer'", Kat explained. Jane's face broke into a grin, rolling her eyes.

"Only you, Kat. Of course I took the notes, you can borrow them after school," Jane told her. Kat squealed and crushed her in a hug. "Thank you so much, cottage-core fairy!

"It- it's nothing," Jane wheezed from Kat's grip. Kat quickly let go of her, not wanting to kill her before she got the notes. "And stop calling me that," Jane said with a pointed look. Kat stuck her tongue out, but didn't retort when she caught sight of the rest of their friends at the end of the hallway.

"Jane! Kat!" Anna called, waving them over. Kat broke into a run towards her friends, while Jane stumbled behind. She was never one for running, anyways.

“Jeez, we’re finally free from school. You wouldn’t believe the mood The HenryTM was in today,” Kat gushed to Anna, who’d wrapped an arm around her friend. Cathy was chewing gum, while Anne and Catherine were bantering off to the side - the usual.

“Oh? What’d he do today?” Anna asked with a grin. Kat proceeded to launch into a diatribe about how their teacher had thrown a whiteboard eraser at the board, yelling about ‘incompetent children’ and ‘wasted potential’, etc.

“Holy shit,” Anne exclaimed when her cousin had finished with a flourish. Catherine raised an eyebrow in amusement. Jane was smirking at Kat’s retelling (and dramaticizing) of that class’s events.

The friends continued their discussions of random things, walking down the hall and into the stairwell.

Arnold had heard  _ everything  _ the group of girls shitting on him had said.

Veins were bulging out of his neck, and his body was heating up. How dare they make fun of him?! 

It wasn't his fault that Daniel - _that little shit_ \- had stood up on his chair, after several warnings from Arnold, and had begun reciting an... explicit poem, to put it lightly.

And especially that  _ Katherine... _

The professor held a deep-rooted grudge against Katherine, ever since the first week of school, two years ago when Katherine and her friends had been freshmen. 

Her cousin, Anne Boleyn, had secretly brought fireworks to school and had lit them during recess, where the entire school could see. Unbeknownst to the green jokester, however, Arnold had just been passing through the courtyard and had strolled right into the danger zone.

Not comprehending the children’s panicked yelling and pointing, Arnold had turned around one second too late... and had had half of his blazer singed off. 

The fabric had burned away completely, revealing Arnold’s... explicit tatoo on his back. Katherine had been filming the entire incident, and to his utter horror, within the next 24 hours the video was trending worldwide. 

Arnold was mocked in the hallways, and it had taken 3 weeks for all traces of the video to disappear from the internet. Even then, at any given time, at least ten people in the school had a copy of the video. It was absolute hell for Arnold.

The salt in the wound? Kat and Anne had gotten off  _ scot-free _ from the incident. Their parents, despite not really giving a shit about their kids, held so much influence over the school board that they could do nothing about it.

Arnold clenched his fists in pure rage. The fact that that little junior and her cousin had gotten away with  _ everything _ that she rightfully deserved was enough to make him blow his fuse.

He took a deep breath, returning back to the classroom and sitting at his desk. He templed his hands and rested his chin on his fingers, his beard tickling the fingertips.

_ I swear to God, the second I pay off my fucking debt I’m outta here. _

With that thought pushing him forwards, he began grading the homework he'd given out two nights ago. 

But something was nagging at his mind.

_ Punish Anne and _ _Katherine_.

Well, what had he been wanting to do for the last two years ever since the incident?! Of course, he didn't have the guts to try anything, not with his job hanging on the line already (okay, so he'd hit a kid on the head with a magnet _once._ He'd totally deserved it though!).

Still, Arnold wasn't one to listen to logic. Not with his fiery temper.

The more he thought about the humiliation he'd been subjected to in the girls' freshmen year, the angrier he got. And he'd been angry plenty of times in the last three hours.

_ I swear, I could fucking behead _ _them_. 

Wait, what?

Okay, that was freaking violent. Arnold would surely go to jail if he ever did something like that - it was so.. gruesome and medieval, as well. Where had that come from? 

After sitting in silence, debating in his mind, Arnold decided to take a logical route for the sake of finishing the grading of the papers. 

_ Just... stop thinking about it. What's done is done, and you can't do anything about _ _it._

Ick. That... actually made sense.

Huh, who knew using logic would come to an advantage?

Armed with this amusing thought, Arnold continued to grade the papers, in a considerably better mood. 

When he finished, he gathered them in a pile, then opened the file cabinet beside him in the desk. Putting them away, Arnold straightened his thick-rimmed glasses and locked the drawer.

Then, he drove home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry i have no idea how to close this chapter off. basically, he's cooled down a lil from his anger high, so he's in that state of 'eh, fuck it' state, ya know?
> 
> hope y'all enjoyed, listen to the neighbourhood (pls), wear your mask+wash your hands, and stay safe!
> 
> tumblr: @rainbow-skissors  
> ^^ it now has a dash because my dumbass deleted my old account so i had to make a new one sO YEAH


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